CDA approves Rs37.7 billion budget

Outlay is 17% less than budget passed by the civic agency in 2014-15

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) Board on Monday approved a Rs37.7 billion budget for the financial year 2015-16, of which 44 per cent — Rs16.6 billion — will be spent to meet the increasing non-development expenditures of the authority.

CDA’s non-development expenditures in the outgoing financial year were 34 per cent of the total budget outlay.

The latest outlay is approximately 17 per cent (Rs8.1 billion) less than the outgoing year’s allocation, which was Rs45.8 billion.

Budget document suggests that in absence of any new revenue generation schemes, this year city managers again mainly depend on sale of commercial and residential properties to meet expenditures.

Development budget

The development budget is estimated at Rs21.1 billion — approximately 11 per cent less than last year’s allocation.

The civic agency has estimated that it would generate Rs35.07 billion revenue from its own resources. This includes Rs20.7 billion from self-finance accounts and Rs14.4 billion from revenue accounts.

Self-finance accounts include generation of Rs8 billion from sale of commercial plots in Blue Area and developed sectors, Rs2.6 billion from sale of residential plots, Rs8 billion from sale of land in C-series residential sectors and Rs6.3 billion from previous pending land receipts, among others.



While the federal government under the Public Sector Development Programme and Maintenance Grants will provide Rs2.06 billion to the authority.

Priority projects

A sum of Rs10.2 billion has been allocated for priority projects including Rs5 billion for improvement and widening of Islamabad Expressway from Zero Point to Rawat, Rs500 million for construction of Margalla Road (Phase-II), Rs700 million for development of Park Enclave and Rs500 million for up-gradation of 7th Avenue.

Similarly, two under passes on Faisal Avenue in Sector G-7/G-8 and Sector F-7/F-8 would also be constructed at a cost of Rs260 million. Moreover, Rs150 million has been allocated for the construction of a slaughter house.

Stalled and new sectors

The CDA has allocated Rs500 million for the development of Sector I-12, Rs200 million for the development of D-12 Markaz and Rs300 million for development of Sector I-15. Meanwhile, Rs300 million each would be spent on the development of Sector D-12 and construction of road infrastructure in Sector E-12.

An amount of Rs1.2 billion has been proposed for land acquisition to develop the C-series sectors.

For the development of sectors C-13, C-14 and C-15, Rs400 million has been allocated. Similarly, Rs100 million has been allocated for the construction of service roads, vehicular roads and railway crossing bridges at University Road in Sector I-12. Moreover, Rs100 million has been earmarked for construction of roads in Sector E-12/2, while Rs100 million for the construction of a multi-level car parking plaza at F-10 Markaz.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2015.